Dan Antion

Help Me Send a Message Please

It has been nine months since I first notified the WordPress Happiness Engineers that some of my followers were being dropped. We suffered through the denial phase for a while, but finally, they agreed that something was wrong.

I continued complaining. They continued saying, “we’re working on it.”

I complained and complained and complained. They closed my ticket. They said, “we’re still working on this, but the ticket has been open too long.”

I switched to following the subject on GitHub, where the programmers, designers and analysts comment on the issue – from time to time, and report progress – or not, as has been the case. I signed up for alerts, and I’ve responded to every comment (there haven’t been that many). I’ve been told, “this issue is very important to us,” and “we have escalated this to the highest level,” and “we absolutely want to solve this problem!” But, like I said, it’s been nine months.

If you don’t mind, would you please click the entry in the poll below that best describes your situation. If you want to also leave a comment, I’d appreciate it. I plan to send a link to this post to the Happiness Engineers on Tuesday, January 11th. I don’t expect it will do any good, but it’s the best I can do – I’m only a paying customer – I don’t have any real leverage because I don’t think they really care as much as they say they do.

For the record, I worked in systems development for 42 years (I know, I’ve said this before). If I had let a problem that was affecting our customers run on for nine months, I would have only been an employee for three of them (and during that time, there would been no chocolate).

That last sentence was added for Linda G. Hill’s JusJoJan challenge. Ritu Bhathal, gave us today’s prompt ‘Chocolate’ – always welcome here. Check out Ritu’s site here.

Trying to stay warm
Friday morning. Events required us to drive during the storm
My favorite railroad trestle.
Snow building up on the rocks in the river
A little bit of red in the clouds
More red in the morning
Snow bunny
Bundled up against the cold. Maddie won’t get many walks this week as temperatures dip toward and below zero (f)
Watching contrails as planes slip through the clouds.
Maddie stopped to sniff all of these
No puddle today.
I like the frost that formed on the fence rails.
Survivors of autumn are now exposed to winter
Nice cold outline
I love the frosted edges
Frosty bench. We won’t be sitting here.

106 comments

  2. Great gallery. Much nicer looking at it on my iPad than being out in it! It’s 18 degrees (F) here. Everything is frozen solid.

    That one lone leaf with the frozen edges is beautiful as is the bunny who was probably shivering when you snapped this picture. Maddie looks warm in her coat, but not for long periods of time in these temperatures!

    The way birds gather on electrical lines never ceases to amaze me. It’s always quite a sight.

    Keep warm Dan. Stay in if you can. Happy Monday!
    Ginger

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    • Thanks Ginger! We will do our best to stay warm, although it’s going to be difficult this week. The frosty-edged leaves struck me on our walk. They looked so cold.

      The bunny seemed fin in his nice fur coat. He found places to munch before going back in.

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      • Dan, reading other comments, which is great fun, I suppose I should let you know there is no poll here either. I wasn’t concerned because I am not having this problem myself, at least not with your posts. But there are some posts I had been following that I no longer get. Maybe they’ve just run out of things to talk about in this never-ending pandemic. Now I’m wondering about the reason for the absence of some posts that I’ve really enjoyed. Sigh….
        Ginger

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        • Thanks Ginger. I appreciate your following-up. I’m glad you haven’t been dropped from here – I wouldn’t know what to do! But the fact that you’ve been dropped from other places should help these people understand that this is a bigger problem than they want to believe.

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  3. A close up snow bunny. Tres bien! I clicked your first answer, though I wish you’d had an option for “my own followers have been repeatedly dropped” because it seems to be happening a lot on my end as well.

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  5. This is interesting because I know of at least one follower who is dropped from my blog each week. She resubscribes and then they drop her again. Pretty sure I’ve been dropped from following other blogs as well. Either that or they are no longer posting. Good luck!

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    • Thanks Joan. I’m sure it’s more widespread than they want to believe. I know I’ve been dropped from blogs I follow. I see notifications saying “Congratulations, No Facilities is growing” Then I see a regular reader has resubscribed 🙁

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  6. I don’t see a poll. So here’s the thing: how would I know I’m missing anything if it’s not there? I don’t think I’d know if I were having problems. Your photos are cold and beautiful. That one of the frost-lined leaf is especially good, I think, but the one of the RR trestle in the snow is the best of all. What a shot. As for customer service, it can be colder than that bunny’s tail.

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    • That’s weird. The poll is visible on my end, and others have responded to it.

      YouTube point is valid and the most irritating thing about this issue. How do people know they didn’t get something? Did you not get a notification email, or did I not post today? I wish I had an answer, Maureen. More than that, I wish they would fix the problem.

      I’m glad you like the pictures, especially the trestle!

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    • That’s the insidious nature of this problem. I didn’t realize it was happening until I received noticed people “following my blog” who had been following for a long time. Then I realized that some people weren’t responding to posts, regulars who normally would be there. I have lost some followers who must think I just stopped writing, because they are gone.

      As a follower, if you follow a bunch of blogs, you depend on notifications. If you don’t get them, you don’t know that you should have.

      Thanks!

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  9. I voted because I have had to re-follow you and quite a few others. Finally my swiss-chess for brains realizes – I haven’t seen so-and-so in a while. I think I’m up to about 15 people I’ve had to re-follow.

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  11. Dan and I speak every day so I do notice when he’s not there. My concern is how many other people have I been dropped from that I haven’t noticed. This is not what one would call good business practice. At least not in my world. And Dan please thank Maddie for pointing out all those beautiful leaves. She knows how much I love them. And the black and whites of the winter scenes are breathtaking. Kudos!

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    • Thanks Pam! Some days, I think I hear Maddie say, “Pam would like that leaf.” I wasn’t looking forward to driving in the snow, but I did get to see some beautiful sights. Winter gives us a lot of scenes we won’t see in any other season.

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  12. Oh my, oh my, oh my, Dan! This looks like cold. And that road! :o I remember such scenes from childhood. I love the bunny photos, and the sunset.

    I’m so sorry that you’re still having this trouble and nothing has been resolved. Since the last time I told you about being dropped by your blog (a few months ago), all has been well. I’m getting email notifications on my Gmail (in Social category, as it should be). I’ve just noticed that another blog has dropped me though, Sandy’s Chronicles. I wish you a happy end, eventually.

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    • Thanks Suzanne. I think the fact that some people are not dropped here, but are from other blogs, while some people are repeatedly dropped from my blog should tell the engineers they have a big problem.

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  14. Wow, your first photo says it all, Dan! Those little birds huddled together make quite a statement about the weather. As for being dropped from your blog site, I’ve not had any problems yet, but I’ve had that experience on other sites. You amaze me with your skill in dealing with tech stuff. It’s always a mystery to me (an unpleasant mystery). Thank goodness you have a fireplace. It looks sooooo cold outside.

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    • Thanks Gwen. It is cold here, and it’s going to get much colder over the next two days.

      I’m glad you haven’t been dropped from my notifications. I hope the fact that you have experienced this problem on other sites will matter to the engineers.

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  15. The B&W photos are very pretty, and the ‘frosted edges’ photo looks like reindeer antlers! I do like your leaf photos, Dan. Weird that some people cannot see the poll. That, at least, should tell the HE’s that something is screwy. Being unfollowed is strange–I had one long-time follower of mine email me because she was concerned I had not posted in over a week–she had been unfollowed! You have to wonder how people lose followers because others think they just stopped posting. I hope you get both a response and a fix. Stay warm!!

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  17. Hi Dan! I’m pretty confident that things have been okay with my visits to No Facillities. As far as notifications go, I don’t wait to find them in my email because I get far too many of them. I come here on the days I absolutely know you are posting and that works for me. I have my own WP issues, like comments from followers ending up in spam and being frustrated with the general workings of the editor (the simple task of changing a sentence to bold or italics can be infuriating when it only does the job to half the sentence…weird.) I have this feeling that the Happiness Engineers at WP know these issues, but either don’t care or don’t know how to fix them. Perhaps go back to the classic editor and forget the current nonsense?

    Love your frosty photos…stay warm with the cold weather!

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  19. Since I am a new subscriber to your blog, Dan, I’m not voting, but I have had some of the same issues on my own blog. Subscribers are dropped and have to resubscribe all the time. I hope there is a solution soon!

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    • I’m glad you like the pictures, Deborah. We are at nine months and counting. Far too long in my book. I’m not sure what else I can do except try to make my case. They are taking this way less seriously than I think they should be.

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  21. Hi Dan. Love the pictures and I cannot help you with the poll. I don’t use ‘follow’. I use the Reader List which is different and has its own set of issues. Good luck with those happiness engineers.

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  22. BUT, it may have something to do with me using my blogspot account rather than WordPress. Those two blogs, sadly, sit like ghost memories of the time I loved it there and had lots of followers. 😕🥲
    Those poor chilly birdies. I don’t miss the terrible cold and we get chilly nights down to the fifties. That’ll do me fine. Keep feeding those yard pets, Dan. I’m sure they appreciate you.

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  23. Hi Dan – I clicked the first one – as I haven’t been dropped off. I use Chrome; also I’m on Blogger and I’m totally unconventional in the way I get things to work! Thankfully my memory is pretty good … so rely on that too much …

    At the moment I’m mastering my Mac (or unmastering it – getting there) … the brain is still alive. It wouldn’t be if I had that snow and cold – gosh I do hope it doesn’t come here … looks beautiful … BUT. The birdies on the lines and your drive remind of days gone by … cheers and all the best with WP and things!! Hilary

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  24. Good luck with WP. I did the survey and have had no problems. Happiness Engineers in name only. They closed the ticket because someone looked at the open ticket stats, and this one is like a burr. Those black and white photos underscore the feeling of winter. Terrific. (The images not winter) Have a super week, Dan

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  26. I clicked that I had to refollow 3-5 times, but I also have the problem of not always (but sometimes) being notified of a new post. If I don’t hear from your blog in a week, I go to the main page and click through to the posts I’ve missed. But sometimes, like today, I DO get notified. Ah, well, it’s all just ones and zeroes.

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  27. Hi Dan. I’m shocked that nobody seems to be selecting that last option. My “follows” have been dropped from so many blogs, so many times that I stopped re-following a long time ago. They’re the Unhappiness Engineers.
    Otherwise, I hope you’re having a good day. That Red Morning photo has such gorgeous colors. Hugs on the wing.

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  28. People are forever telling me that they’ve been dropped from my blog, too. I try to go around to everyone who’s a regular reader to let them know I’m posting, but that’s getting old. I hope your continued crusade to get the ironically named Happiness Engineers to fix this systemwide problem is a success.

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  34. Hi Dan
    I hope they do get it figured out because if it happens to you – it is likely happening to there people – and I am not as astute as you are with the stats – but my follower numbers seem off – but I also know that some of the behind the scenes folks can “bump” up numbers or help click the follower button as part of a way to keep bloggers engaged – especially newer ones –
    anyhow, I hope they figure it out and love those ending photos – :)

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  38. Thank you for staying after WordPress on the unsubscribe problem, Dan. I contacted them AGAIN tonight, got the same “we’re working on it” answer I’ve been getting for the last nine months, so this time I asked them how I can escalate the problem to a higher level because I feel I’m being jerked around. The Happiness Engineer gave me the GitHub link discussing customers’ reporting of the problem. If I thought I was mad before, I’m REALLY mad now!! It has not been a priority for them AT ALL. Anyway, thank you for keeping after them.

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  39. Hello Dan. I am a Happiness Engineer at WordPress.com, and I came across your report and the GitHub issue that we opened for it. It looks like our developers have shipped a patch for this issue that ought to have resolved the issue.

    A big thank you to you and to your readers for your patience. I can imagine that this has been really frustrating!! Please feel free to reach out to us by email or in live chat if you still experience this issue. You can find our support links here: https://wordpress.com/support/help-support-options/

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